1) Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to construction of building structures and more particularly to an anchoring plate to be utilized between an anchor bolt that is mounted in conjunction with a sill plate which precisely positions the anchor bolt relative to the sill plate preventing slight movements therebetween.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Concrete is commonly used within footings and slabs for buildings, houses, patio covers and other similar types of structures. It is common to embed anchor bolts within the concrete with these anchor bolts protruding from the upper surface of the concrete to then be used to attach the walls of the building, house or patio cover to the concrete. An anchor bolt is normally constructed of metal with an inner threaded end and an outer and which is bent forming a hook configuration. This hook configuration is designed to be embedded within the cement with the threaded end of the hook to extend above the level of the cement. It is the threaded end to which the wall of the building, house or patio cover is to be attached.
This attachment procedure is to be accomplished by the use of a sill plate. Generally a sill plate takes the form of a wooden member, generally a two by four, that is to be placed with its longest cross-sectional dimension resting against the uppermost surface of the cement footing. Formed within this sill plate is a plurality of spaced apart holes with an anchor bolt to extend through each hole. The normal installing procedure for the sill plate is, as the building, house or patio cover is being constructed, for the sill plate to be positioned directly against the cement footing. The position for each hole located within the sill plate is then "eyeballed" on the sill plate and a mark is made at each position. The sill plate is then drilled with a hole at each position. Because slight misalignments always occur, it is common for this hole to be made one and a half to two times larger in diameter than what is actually required for the cross section of the anchor bolt. In the past, after the sill plate has been placed in conjunction with the anchor bolts, it has been common to merely use nuts in conjunction with each anchor bolt to fixedly secure the sill plate onto the cement footing.
The problem is that because of the oversized holes in the sill plate, there really is not a precise fixing of the sill plate on the cement footing. The lumber that is used contains a significant amount of moisture. After a period of time, the connection between the sill plate and anchor bolts will lossen due to the sill plate "drying out", causing shrinkage. Upon the building structure incurring some kind of unusual movement, such as in an earthquake, twisting, turning and slipping of the sill plate can occur on the cement footing. This will cause walls to assume non-vertical configurations producing extensive cracks to plaster and wallboard requiring a substantial amount of expensive repairs.
If the sill plate could be precisely fixedly located relative to the anchor bolt, this movement of the sill plate could be avoided during an earthquake thereby avoiding such expensive repairs.